Project ugly duckling

Rusty

Rusty

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The first bunch of villagers received was a batch of about a dozen all about the same by a kami from near Gorkha town, who sold Kami Sherpa a tale, if I remember. About 14" OAL, wood handles, flat butt plate, small but usable karda and chakma, and scabbards by, probably, a local sarki(s)? Correct anything I've gotten wrong, Uncle Bill, I'm recalling this from memory.

As soon as they got sold, there were initial reports that a bunch of us liked the little devils, but they cried out to be prettified. Yes, I succumbed too, my villager is in pieces as I post this. Every now and then I take an hour to get ten minutes work done, and it may be finished the start of next month or the next, or in time for Y2K.

So who else is sweetening up their villager? What are you doing? Did you start small and end up with a big project, or have an ambitious project that fell by the wayside. Me, in open defiance of common sense and Murphy's Law, I told Uncle Bill that when this baby gets finished I'll have people drooling over their keyboards the www over. Hey, it could happen!

Anyway, what's up with you?
 
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I didn't get one of those villagers,but the one I did get isn't going to get prettied up.
The most it has gotten is a good scrub with some Scotch Brite and 'erled down' with some olive oil.

However!! Barb took the pix I took of the karda and chakma I made for my 18" AK down for developing and I should be getting them back any day now.Then they will be sent to Uncle aong with some other goodies and he can post them.
I am kind of proud of them.
smile.gif


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.

 
You've got everything right, Rusty as well as I can remember, too. But as I said watch out for Murphy! Sometimes he waits until the last minute to appear.

Right, Yvsa? How many times have you been working on a part that requires 375 operations and it was a beauty until op 375 which destroyed it? Call in the welder -- see if it can be saved. If not, new billet and back to op 1. Murphy strikes again!

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 17 August 1999).]
 
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Uncle most of the things I did was done quickly.I deceided to become an Automatic Screw Machine man because you didn't have to stand in place at one machine all day.What I didn't realize was I had to learn all these other machines in order to make jgs and fixtures and such for 2nd. and 3rd and sometimes more operations.

One of the funny ones was when I was running a little shop and we moved our Bridgeport to a better location
to facilitate production.
I told the machinist to be sure and sweep the table in and he said,"It doesn't need sweeping.It is already clean." Sheeesh!! No wonder we had problems with that mill up until then.

That's kind of an indirect way to answer your question,hunh?

The one screw machine I didn't like is a 5 spindle Davenport.The biggest round stock they will run is 13/16".
They have slightly over 1500 moving parts where something can and does go wrong.They have the ability to make a simple small part every 0.6 seconds.That is to fast for me!!

If something goes haywired with any screw machine that is running 10 seconds or less a lot of scrap can be generated in a short time.Depending upon the kind of machines you were running determined how many you ran at once.Single spindles were usually three at a time.

Then some people wonder why I am like I am.
smile.gif



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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.

 
I have one of those little guys - only a khukuri fan would describe a 14in peice of steel as little!
smile.gif
. So far its one of the most usefull tools I have ever puchased.

I'm slowly working the grind marks out of the blade and have been waiting for a slow patch (I don't want to head out bush with out it!) to start work on a new handle.

I had a go at hot bluing the chakma and karda. While it took OK I wasn't happy with the final look and will take them back to natural metal.

Once I get it done I will try to get a few pic's posted

Andre

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"The thorn stands to protect the rose, yet it is peaceful and seeks no conflict."

 
Yvsa, I forgot. Now I remember you telling me you were a screw machine man --lots of parts in a hurry. I was associated with little shops which did mostly prototype work and small lots. Prototypes can be tough.

Andre, we will watch for the pictures.

Uncle Bill
 
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Yep,prtotypes can be ugly.I got to do some really incredible things in my latter career.
I got to be the first to make some small concrete fastners that drive in with a hammer.
I was also one of the first ones in the world to machine double vacumn melted,condition B,302 stainless steel.These were some small end rods for a nuclear reactor,very precise and critical.
In my later years I was content to work for hours on the same project.
I had a lot of fun and that is more than most can say.



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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.

 
Well Rusty, I had one, but then my wife saw it, and now she has one and I don't.

The only modification I made was accidentally smacking the blade edge into a rock. Now Janet owns it and she has different ideas about beauty. She thinks flowers are pretty and knives are for cutting. Her tools lead really rough lives, that would make most members of Bladeforums cringe. I suspect her future "prettification" will include leaving it out in the rain, using it to dig weeds and cut sod, forgetting it under a brushpile for several weeks, etc.

If you want you can show this post to your villager. Then it will realize how lucky it is!
 
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LOLOLOL
Howard,didn't some of the old cultures bury iron to let the soft stuff rust off until just the hard-workin part was left?

This one is gonna be used harder than it would've been in Nepal.
smile.gif


Isn't this the one were your wife said,"Everyone in this family has a Kuhkuri but me."?
It will be interesting to read periodical reports on it if you could do that Howard.????
Thanks.


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.

 
I've more than one villager, but I had to take a shot at cleaning one up.
 
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